We all know where the tree led in the offline version of Uru but Ive been speculating for a good while about where it would have led in MOUL or where it may have been originally intended to lead (assuming MOUL is at least close to the original plan for what ended up in the expansions)
The following images speak for themselves





That last image is certainly the most interesting. Thoughts?

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MOUL KI# 10281985
MOULa KI# 1492059

Fear is the mind-killer

That certainly makes sense to me.

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Zander

MOULagain KI 1090046

"What you still don't understand I have either forgotten to tell you or don't know myself."

Yep, the connection is convincing! However, why would Noloben be so special to the D'ni, and to whoever built the Sanctuary in particular? Am I missing something?

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Simone - KI#1001138
Please avoid drinking the lake water.

Esher (Myst V) is from Noloben. Have you seen the note in MOULa saying that the house in Noloben isn't empty?

If at least some of the Myst V stuff is from the Uru Live content, then it could be that part of the plot is as well. The tree may have been some form of link between the Bahro and the D'ni or something. It was implied that the Bahro lived on Noloben (whether they originated from there remains to be understood). It was also revealed that the Bahro were susceptible to the snakes on Noloben. If there was a direct connection between the D'ni and the Bahro, Noloben would be the best proof of this connection.

Perhaps the spiral path was originally intended to lead to Noloben? Who knows. I hope all of this good plot and info stuff gets revealed by Cyan someday through MOUL. I'd love to see how the story is supposed to unfold (there isn't a reason why it cannot).

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Latharion

KI: 03390194

It's too late, Latharion. If you read the info at the DRC site and remember Dr Watson's appearance at the end of MO:UL,
Myst V has already happened (prior to MO:UL) and Dr Watson made it so.

Awesome observation skills, Loshem!

Whether or not Cyan will ever move forward with their intended plans (or change course due to unforeseen circumstances), I still find it interesting to speculate about what those plans might have been - like the speculation about the books on Phil's bookcase in the Phil's Relto thread.

Could there have been a connection between Kadish and Esher?

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OpenUru.org Minkata Test Shard is
OU-Minkata Shard Testers Guide (in laymen's terms)

Although the events in Myst V already happened, we still do not know how (if ever) Noloben will be made available in the Cavern, and what information will be released with it. Let's not forget that the Myst games are supposed to be only an "intepretation" of the truth! ;-)

We also know that the Bahro are somehow linked to Eder Kemo as well...

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Simone - KI#1001138
Please avoid drinking the lake water.

Rusty_Russell wrote:

It's too late, Latharion. If you read the info at the DRC site and remember Dr Watson's appearance at the end of MO:UL,
Myst V has already happened (prior to MO:UL) and Dr Watson made it so.

Still, the Age could still have connections with other parts of the story, especially since we can't be sure that everything was exactly that way IC in Uru's canon (since Myst V was an adaption of what happened, and such adaptions can use artistic license for gameplay reasons and others).

Of course, the tree symbol is a very general D'ni/bahro symbol, so it could be unrelated (or just added on for a different reason - a nice neutral symbol they had to decorate the stone with). Hmm...

Edit: Another interesting thing to note. I remember comments that one of the drawings of Noloben (that was made the box art for some, I think)

had elements similar to K'veer (the pillars and suchlike), which was probably just artistic reusing of the textures and concepts already made. What if it was actually because there was some closer connection, though?

That depiction of the tree is also very close to this bahroglyph; notice the way the roots mirror the branches - very powerful symbol...

I remember RAWA saying that Kadish wasn't supposed to be the original Deceiver (i.e. - the person behind Ahnonay); the story was probably changed for POTS because Kadish was already a known (kinda of) character. But now I wonder: maybe the Deceiver was supposed to be the D'ni survivor of Noloben (the one we presently know as Esher, although I think there may be little connection between the two characters)?

Also, please remember that what we presently know as "Noloben" is radically different from Cyan's original vision - so much as to make Cyan consider renaming it "Siralehn". We do know that, although Noloben was one of the first ages to be modelled for MUDPIE, it was put on hold because Cyan felt that they simply didn't have the technology to create the gameplay they had envisioned for that age. This fact has always intrigued me...

>>JP<< wrote:

We do know that, although Noloben was one of the first ages to be modelled for MUDPIE, it was put on hold because Cyan felt that they simply didn't have the technology to create the gameplay they had envisioned for that age. This fact has always intrigued me...

You may be confusing Noloben and Kahlo.

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Sören Nils 'chucker' Kuklau; KI number: 196082
MYSTcommunity & MYSTlore
I write soeren says. You don't.

chucker wrote:

>>JP<< wrote:

We do know that, although Noloben was one of the first ages to be modelled for MUDPIE, it was put on hold because Cyan felt that they simply didn't have the technology to create the gameplay they had envisioned for that age. This fact has always intrigued me...

You may be confusing Noloben and Kahlo.

No, I'm not. Kahlo was also suspended for technical reasons, yes; but I remember that a while back (2006), we were discussing the whole Siralehn/Noloben controversy and why Noloben was still in Restoration Phase 3 if it was one of the earliest Uru environments; RAWA then explained that the beach Age that was once known as "The Cove" has already been through many redesigns, and that the reason that it has spent so many years in the backburner (Kadish Tolesa, for example, is significantly more recent, and was shipped with the original Uru) is because the gameplay they designed was deemed too ambitious at the time

Rusty_Russell wrote:

It's too late, Latharion. If you read the info at the DRC site and remember Dr Watson's appearance at the end of MO:UL,
Myst V has already happened (prior to MO:UL) and Dr Watson made it so.

I did write my message in the past tense. As in, it might have been.. or maybe it WAS.. etc.

Of course we all know how it played out based on the Gametap requirements, etc. My message was to inspire wonderings about the original intent of the Watcher's Sanctuary, as well as observing the possible symbolism of the Bahro tree etching on Noloben, and other nifty stuff. If Cyan wanted to, they could simply go back and write in the stuff they wanted to happen they way they wanted it to happen, and ignore Myst V (they even established that Myst V was a GAME, and not to be taken literally).

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Latharion

KI: 03390194

There's no reason the Myst V Ages can't still be implemented into the story that's being told through MOUL. Noloben, Im sure, has many more secrets than what was revealed in Myst V. Since when does an entire Age have to be a single island? There were plenty of other islands out in the distance.
Laki'ahn is another example. So much of that Age was unused in Myst V. The Laki themselves are out there swimming around in the water fully rendered complete with sound effects but you can only see the tips of their fins in the final game. That ever-day eclipse, Im sure, had some puzzle significance in the original plan too that simply got scrapped when the mechanics were altered.
There exists in Noloben in Myst V a collision map over the entirety of the ocean that you cant get to beacuse of an invisible wall. Using a certain program it is possible to bypass the wall and "walk" around in the normal game controls IN the water. This leads me to believe that at one point swimming or perhaps even taking a boat was going to be possible in the Age.

Something else that bothers me about the Watcher's Sanctuary puzzle is the fact that both the giant elaborate door and the orb in the spiral serve no purpose to the puzzle. As we've seen with Ahnonay and Er'cana, the "wait" puzzles seem to indicate the need for another player which leads me to believe that the Watcher's puzzle was intended to require multiple people to solve. This also explains why our version of the sanctuary in MOUL is public

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MOUL KI# 10281985
MOULa KI# 1492059

Fear is the mind-killer

Loshem wrote:

There's no reason the Myst V Ages can't still be implemented into the story that's being told through MOUL.

Actually there is a very good and compeling reason. There are 2 reasons. One is called Ubi Soft. The other is called "legal propriety".

Together they are very compeling in making anything related to myst V that wasn't released previously in URU very hard to implement.

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